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Holmes, Mark Edward, and n/a. "Fraud against governments in Australia : reviewing rational and political decision making processes." University of Canberra. Administrative Studies, 1993. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060725.150531.
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Quintal, Vanessa Ann. "An investigation into the effects of risk and uncertainty on consumers' decision-making processes : a cross-national study." University of Western Australia. Graduate School of Management, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0038.
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[Truncated abstract] Global tourism accounted for US$623 billion in 2004, representing 6% of the world's exports of goods and services (World Tourism Organisation, 2005). In the last decade, natural and man-made disasters have adversely affected the tourism industry. Consequently, the risk and uncertainty associated with travel have increased, potentially impacting on tourists' behaviour. However, while travel motivators have received a great deal of research attention, travel constraints have not been examined to the same degree. The present study explores risk and uncertainty and their roles in people's decisionmaking processes in a tourism context. In doing so, attempts were made to clarify the distinction between the risk and uncertainty constructs, which in prior research often have been used interchangeably, leading to some confusion about their roles. The distinction between the perceptual and attitudinal constructs also was clarified, as prior research into their differential impacts has been limited. To achieve these objectives, data were collected from online research panel members in Australia, the United States (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), New Zealand, South Korea, China and Japan, as part of a larger tourism study. While the majority of the country samples were drawn from the general population, the Japan sample constituted an international
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Lock, Graeme. "Strategies for increasing community participation in school decision-making processes." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1989. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1111.
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The aim of this study is to develop, by a deductive approach, a framework of strategies which would assist school administrative teams to form a school-based decision making group. Specifically, the strategies are aimed to increasing the participation of non-school-based community members in decision–making processes. Three focusing themes - the need for an overall plan the availability of adequate time and the provision of sufficient financial resources - are used as the structure for the literature review. Within these themes a number of strategies are identified which are relevant to the purpose of this study. Using a deductive approach, these strategies are assembled into a conceptual framework. The developed conceptual framework is suitable for most school situations in systems where much of the administrative functions of schools has been devolved to the school level. Some of the significant strategies in the conceptual framework were found to be the formation of an implementation team; organization of a timetable; the development, implementation and consideration of a community analysis; anticipation of difficulties; the establishment of an effective communication system; the development and implementation of specific motivational strategies; and evaluation of the change process. Although the conceptual framework is suitable for most schools, there may be some schools with certain characteristics where implementation of the outlined strategies would not be appropriate. In these cases modifications should be made to the conceptual framework of strategies. This study examines two situations where modifications could be required. In discussing the suggested modifications, the versatility of the conceptual framework is established as well as its validity reliability.
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Cohen, Lynne. "Moving to Western Australia : decision making processes of migrants from the United Kingdom." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1999. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1215.
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International migration has assumed a new importance during the last few decades due to the volume and increase of population movement. Two important questions are relevant to the migration process. The person has to make the decision to move and to select a place of destination. In this thesis a series of studies designed to examine the factors that led to the consideration of leaving and the attributes which contributed to the choice of destination are presented. This research begins by adopting suggestions proposed by Jahoda (1981) to ask questions and thereby increase the knowledge base. The methodological framework of this research is derived from the different issues and controversies within psychology that have arisen due to a growing dissatisfaction with the traditional approaches that underpin much psychological research. Alternative philosophical and methodological approaches are drawn upon such as, substantive theorising (Wicker, 1989), the human science methodological framework (Dokecki, 1992), critical multiplism (Newbrough, 1992) and a systems perspective (Bronfenbrenner (1977) to achieve a more holistic approach to the research. A multi-method thesis is presented in four stages that incorporate triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methods to serve both completeness and confirmation of the research. Each level provides more detail and specificity moving from the macro to the micro level of inquiry. In order to address the key question of what factors influence the decision to migrate, the first stage explores the potential reasons why people leave the United Kingdom to live in Australia. The literature on possible reasons for migration is reviewed and is used as one source of information that is then further explored in this stage using qualitative semi-structured interviews that focus on the interpretive and descriptive analysis of these reasons. Some of the possible explanations included migrating for a better life and education for the children, the climate in Australia and the better economic prospects for the future. Based on these different perspectives provided by the participants, an informed decision tree was developed. The results of this first stage of the research informed the following two stages. The second stage of the research is a specific analysis of the substantive domain that examined the information obtained from stage one in more detail. This experimental stage was ideographic and used linear regression models obtained by regression analyses to understand the basis of the migration decision and the factors which contribute to that decision. Results of this study indicated that the judgments of two thirds of the participants were well modelled by the linear model. The implications and limitations for using this approach are discussed in detail. In the third stage of the research, the substantive domain is further explored in two studies which use a multiattribute utility model approach for conceptual clarification of the decision making process. In this stage, the additional research question was addressed which examined whether there were any differences in the decision making process between migrants from the U.K. living in Australia and a specific group with a visa intending to migrate who have not yet departed from the U.K. In the first study, 446 migrants from the U.K. already living in Australia completed a questionnaire. In the second study, a group of potential migrants, who had not yet migrated but had already obtained their visas, completed a similar questionnaire. In summary, the results supported the salience of the different factors determined in the previous studies and indicated that participants could be clearly divided into three groups using cluster analysis. The implications for understanding the results of both these studies are discussed. The final stage of the research continues the process of exploring the substantive domain and returns to the migrants to understand their experiences through real life episodes of migration. This stage uses the approach suggested by Dewey (1929), and returns to the migrants who have the experience and are able to clarify the situation as they have the best knowledge. The results reinforced the importance and salience of the different factors determined in the previous stages. It also confirmed that one cannot focus solely on only one factor, as there are a combination of factors which play a role in the decision to move. The final chapter reviews the results obtained in this thesis and the different methodological perspectives used in the research. The accumulation of knowledge that has resulted from this research and the contribution made to the understanding of the substantive domain of migration is discussed further. Positive suggestions for further research are proposed.
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Rivers, Gary James. "University selection in Singapore : a case study of students' past and intended decision-making." University of Western Australia. Graduate School of Management, 2005. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2005.0072.
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This research focussed Singaporean student decision-making when choosing an institution for university studies. It is contended that if a university does not understand the dimensions of how prospective students make decisions when choosing an institution it cannot meaningfully offer representation to these potential customers. Fittingly, this thesis drew on past research from buyer behaviour and college choice studies. Adapting an established model of consumer decision-making (Engel, Blackwell and Miniard, 1990), the study investigated the degree of compliance with the Extended Problem Solving concept (Howard, 1963), including what factors determined and influenced choices, and whether students learn from past decisions. To this end, an exploratory / descriptive study used mixed methods (Creswell, 1994) to map out the dimensions of student decision-making within an Australian University and Singaporean Association case. Results indicated students? decision-making was closely aligned to simple models and their decision-making steps could be best described as (1) having a need, (2) searching and gathering information, (3) evaluating alternatives, (4) making choice/s, and (5) accepting an offer and enrolling in a university program. Further, respondents did not necessarily engage in extensive searching and gathering activities, as theorised, demonstrated limited learning and had few discernible influences on their choices. The implications for the University-Association case included the need to guide students through their decision-making processes by providing relevant data on which they could make informed choices, relative to career and income advancement. For those indicating that they would choose an institution for postgraduate studies, ensure undergraduate post-choice regret is minimised and offer more choices of management programs so that respondents would consider continuing their studies with the same institution. The study contended that, despite delimits and limitations, contributions to both theory and practise had been made and concluded with several ideas for future research, including proposing two alternative hypotheses.
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Barton, John Edward Built Environment Faculty of Built Environment UNSW. "A spatial decision support system for the management of public housing." Awarded by:University of New South Wales, 2007. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/35209.
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Armstrong, Douglas Bruce, University of Western Sydney, of Science Technology and Environment College, and School of Environment and Agriculture. "CEO characteristics, organisation characteristics, decision making and CBIS success in regional small business." THESIS_CSTE_EAG_Armstrong_D.xml, 2003. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/773.
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The research conducted for this thesis had two broad aims. The first was to provide descriptive information about the use of computer-based information systems (CBIS) in regional small business. The second of the aims was to examine the relationships among key constructs identified from the literature and to explore how they contributed to predicting CBIS success in regional small business.In the second phase of the analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to examine the factorial constructs underlying the data. Constructs were identified that measured CEO characteristics, two measuring organisational characteristics, four measuring aspects of decision-making, and five measuring perceived CBIS success. Correlations among the constructs were examined prior to relationships among the constructs being explored using hierarchical regression analysis. The constructs were also examined in a single measurement model to determine their collective effect and relationships with the constructs measuring CBIS success based on structural equation modelling. Notwithstanding the limitations of the research, it resulted in the identification of relationships among key variables that predict CBIS success. The identification of items associated with decision-making processes, and the identification of the factorial constructs underlying the data is a major contribution to a portion of the literature that was non-existent. The final measurement model is also a significant contribution in identifying and specifying the relationships constructs measuring CEO characteristics, organisational characteristics, decision-making and CBIS success in regional small business.Doctor of Philosphy (PhD)
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Sukkar, Malak, and sukkarm@stvmph org au. "Executives' Decision Making in Australian Private Hospitals: Margin or Mission?" RMIT University. Graduate School of Business, 2008. http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20081031.162754.
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This thesis examines decision making at executive level in Australian private hospitals as a social phenomenon, since individuals draw meaning from their own biographical and social environmental experiences. The researcher interpreted the constructed realities of the factors influencing executives' decisions within the context of private hospitals - a field that is rarely examined through the lens of social research. Using an Interpretivist research paradigm, the researcher conducted semi- structured and in-depth interviews with sixteen executive members who are experts in their field and represent both sectors of the private hospital industry: private for-profit and private not-for-profit. The data generated was transformed into technical accounts using an abductive research strategy and adopting Schütz's notion of first-order and second-order constructs. Using Giddens' Structuration Theory, that stressed the fundamental role of the human agent, the structure and their mutual dependence, the researcher moved beyond the interpretation of individuals' meanings, to incorporate the structure as an entity that can be formed and reformed. The researcher interpreted social actors' constructed meanings of these social phenomena in their work environment to form the elements of a two-dimensional decision making model at organisational level, incorporating the present with the future and the internal with the external factors. On an individual level, three different approaches to decision making were identified, based on whether executives perceived the decision making phenomenon as intuition, as a reasoned process or as an expected outcome. While being from a limited research sample, the findings of this study suggest that the paradox of mission / economic decisions restrained executives in the not-for-profit sector from strengthening their hospitals' financial performance, putting at risk, therefore, their ability to achieve social dividends as a way to proclaim their mission. On the other hand, in the for-profit sector, shareholders' dividends appeared to be a strong catalyst for attaining profit maximisation when making decisions. In both settings, the findings suggest that the role of stakeholder theory is questionable, particularly when executives remained hesitant to involve medical specialists, whom they considered to be major stakeholders and profit generators for private hospitals. This attitude appeared to be constant, despite the changes identified in executives' individual approaches to decision making. However, early signs of shifts towards adopting more commercially and socially accountable decisions were apparent in not-for-p rofit and for-profit sectors respectively. The thesis sets out recommendations to assist executives in managing the different factors that interplay to form executives' decisions. The importance of having a mission in business longevity and the integration, as opposed to alignment, of strategic goals with business operations when making executive decisions in private hospitals was highlighted. The implications for both sectors are described and recommendations for further research are suggested.
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Safiabadi, Nazanin. "Visual communication elements in fresh milk labels: Investigating purchase decision-making processes in Australia." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2016. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/96102/1/Nazanin_Safiabadi_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis is focused on the importance of packaging design for fresh milk in Australia. The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between visual communication elements in milk package labels, their related marketing strategies, and the perception of the consumer in relation to their purchase decision-making. This investigation is based on the semiotic analysis of visual design elements in existing milk labels as well as those created during a participatory design workshop with consumers. This study, therefore, examines the potential of visual design to define positioning strategies to attract specific consumer groups at the point of sale.
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Taghian, Mehdi, and mikewood@deakin edu au. "Market fit, market orientation, and business performance: An empirical investigation." Deakin University. Deakin Business School, 2004. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20050915.135152.
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This thesis investigated the congruence of an organisation to its intended target markets. It was hypothesised that the internal activities of an organisation are, potentially, structured in response to its market dynamics with the ultimate aim of achieving the organisational objective(s). Market fit has been conceptualised to represent the fit of an organisation to its operating market environment. The information for this study was collected from senior marketing decision makers, using a self-administered questionnaire. The sample comprised 216 companies from a mix of industries and organisational sizes in Australia.
There is evidence to suggest that the association of market orientation and business performance is inconsistent under different business operating circumstances, due to the exclusion of the influence of key environmental moderators. The model of market fit attempts to overcome this condition. The results suggest that market fit is associated with measures of business performance, and the levels of association are different from those related to the market orientation measures, reflecting the influence of moderators. The categories of environmental moderators contributing at different levels to the market fit measure include: (1) marketing planning, (2) implementation of marketing decisions, (3) market orientation, (4) market strength, (5) generic strategies, (6) organisational culture, (7) familiarity with the marketing audit, and (8) the external environment. The marketing audit procedure has been recommended as a tool to assist with the establishment and maintenance of market fit. The results of this study indicate that organisational familiarity with, and the conduct of, the marketing audit periodically are low, and that market fit may be a better predictor of business performance, than is market orientation.
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Robinson, Jeffrey Brett, University of Western Sydney, of Science Technology and Environment College, and School of Environment and Agriculture. "Understanding and applying decision support systems in Australian farming systems research." THESIS_CSTE_EAG_Robinson_J.xml, 2005. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/642.
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Decision support systems (DSS) are usually based on computerised models of biophysical and economic systems. Despite early expectations that such models would inform and improve management, adoption rates have been low, and implementation of DSS is now “critical” The reasons for this are unclear and the aim of this study is to learn to better design, develop and apply DSS in farming systems research (FSR). Previous studies have explored the merits of quantitative tools including DSS, and suggested changes leading to greater impact. In Australia, the changes advocated have been: Simple, flexible, low cost economic tools: Emphasis on farmer learning through soft systems approaches: Understanding the socio-cultural contexts of using and developing DSS: Farmer and researcher co-learning from simulation modelling and Increasing user participation in DSS design and implementation. Twenty-four simple criteria were distilled from these studies, and their usefulness in guiding the development and application of DSS were assessed in six FSR case studies. The case studies were also used to better understand farmer learning through models of decision making and learning. To make DSS useful complements to farmers’ existing decision-making repertoires, they should be based on: (i) a decision-oriented development process, (ii) identifying a motivated and committed audience, (iii) a thorough understanding of the decision-makers context, (iv) using learning as the yardstick of success, and (v) understanding the contrasts, contradictions and conflicts between researcher and farmer decision culturesDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Anderson-Marks, Michelle. "The decision making processes of small business owner-managers : an environmental focus." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2014. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/861.
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Large business is often the focus when environmental issues are discussed because their individual impact on the environment is viewed as larger than that of the smaller business. However due to the large size of the small business sector it has been recognised that reducing their collective impact is critical to achieving a sustainable future. A lack of engagement by small businesses in environmental management invoked an interest in understanding how to better engage the owner-managers in this area, but more specifically what influenced their decision.
With an emphasis on the day to day running of the business, many small business owner-managers place more emphasis on core business operations and often neglect the impact their business has on the natural environment. Considering 96% of all business in Australia is classified as small, their collective impact on the natural environment is significant. As many small business owner-managers see their environmental impact as minimal, improving their environmental behaviour is challenging.
The aim of this study was therefore to explore the decision making approaches of the small business owner-manager to environmental management issues. Nine small businesses from three industries were chosen and using the Critical Incident Technique to explore their decision making process, this study sought to understand from the owner-managers perspective how and why business decisions are made. Semi structured interviews were used to identify the decision making approaches for four different business decisions: economic, legislative, social and environmental. Over a series of interviews the owner-managers were able to freely describe their decision process and rich data was able to be obtained.
Results indicated that owner-managers base business decisions on many factors and use a range of decision making styles depending on the type, and importance, of the decision to be made, that is core business decision are more often rationally made, whilst discretionary decisions will often be made intuitively based on the information at hand. Therefore to better engage them in ways to improve environmental management practices, increasing the knowledge and understanding to the benefits of these improvements is imperative. In addition this information is more readily accepted when the information is relevant to their business and presented in a clear manner by someone with whom the owner-manager has established a pre-existing relationship.
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Rivers, Cheryl Janet. "Ethical decision making in negotiation : a Sino-Australian study of the influence of culture." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2003. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/15843/1/Cheryl_Rivers_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis presents the results of three studies that extend understanding of ethical decision making in negotiation. First, by comparing how Chinese and Australian negotiators think about contextual variables in an interpretive study, an extended model of ethical decision making in negotiation is offered. This study suggested differences in how codes of ethics and perception of the other party were understood as well as a shared understanding of the influence of the legal environment across the two cultures. Importance of organisational goals and personal and business reputation also emerged as important variables in negotiators' ethical decision making. The next study began testing the extended model with an investigation of the interaction between culture and closeness of the relationship with the other party using the SINS scale (Robinson, Lewicki, & Donahue, 2000). It was found that Chinese negotiators generally rated ethically ambiguous negotiation tactics as more appropriate than Australians, and that Chinese differentiated more in their ratings of appropriateness according to the social context. In the test for metric equivalence of the SINS scale, this study found that the existing approach of inductively deriving types of ethically ambiguous negotiation tactics based on ratings of perceived appropriateness is flawed since patterns of ratings are likely to vary across groups of negotiators. In light of this, a new typology of ethically ambiguous negotiation tactics is offered based on an a priori identification of conceptually distinct types of tactics. This new inventory of items represents the first step in the process of producing a cross-culturally generalisable scale of ethically ambiguous negotiation tactics.
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Rivers, Cheryl Janet. "Ethical Decision Making in Negotiation: A Sino-Australian Study of the Influence of Culture." Queensland University of Technology, 2003. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/15843/.
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This thesis presents the results of three studies that extend understanding of ethical decision making in negotiation. First, by comparing how Chinese and Australian negotiators think about contextual variables in an interpretive study, an extended model of ethical decision making in negotiation is offered. This study suggested differences in how codes of ethics and perception of the other party were understood as well as a shared understanding of the influence of the legal environment across the two cultures. Importance of organisational goals and personal and business reputation also emerged as important variables in negotiators' ethical decision making. The next study began testing the extended model with an investigation of the interaction between culture and closeness of the relationship with the other party using the SINS scale (Robinson, Lewicki, & Donahue, 2000). It was found that Chinese negotiators generally rated ethically ambiguous negotiation tactics as more appropriate than Australians, and that Chinese differentiated more in their ratings of appropriateness according to the social context. In the test for metric equivalence of the SINS scale, this study found that the existing approach of inductively deriving types of ethically ambiguous negotiation tactics based on ratings of perceived appropriateness is flawed since patterns of ratings are likely to vary across groups of negotiators. In light of this, a new typology of ethically ambiguous negotiation tactics is offered based on an a priori identification of conceptually distinct types of tactics. This new inventory of items represents the first step in the process of producing a cross-culturally generalisable scale of ethically ambiguous negotiation tactics.
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King, Andrew Stephen. "Staying ahead of the game : a framework for effective aquaculture decision-making." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/12011.
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Globally, Atlantic salmon aquaculture is faced with a critical challenge: How best to deliver long-term sustainable growth, whilst optimising the opportunity for the expansion of the industry presented by an increasing global seafood demand? The thesis presents a novel framework of complementary decision support approaches to enable decision-makers to better understand the factors influencing aquaculture development, and examine alternative production (growout) technologies that more effectively address the challenges associated with intensification and expansion. The framework was developed through a combination of fieldwork (international data-gathering), key stakeholder discussions, and the application of targeted qualitative and quantitative analytical approaches; using the Tasmanian industry as a Case Study. The initial research focused on shorter-term (tactical) decision support. A situational analysis defined the business environment, and appraised viable expansion options (offshore, closed-containment and extractive bio-remediation). An economic analysis of selected options then provided a comparison of financial performance and risk. The outputs of this initial component next informed strategic decision-making approaches; employing scenario analysis to explore plausible strategies for the adoption of land-based recirculating aquaculture systems; and qualitative modelling to understand the causal dynamics driving and regulating the industry, and their impact on technology selection. Whilst it was clear that business economic viability is paramount, the results suggested that societal acceptance (the Social License to operate) is playing an increasingly important role in influencing business decisions. There is no single ‘right' technological solution; social acceptance, in particular considerations regarding human wellbeing, trust, and animal welfare concerns, will shape the business environment and therefore technology selection. The research emphasised the importance of employing a balance of tactical and strategic decision-making techniques, and of engaging with a broad range of industry stakeholders. It also highlighted the complexity and dynamic nature of the industry and that key variances (economic, regional, strategic, technological, and temporal) must be included in decision-making.
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Gallego, Gisselle. "Access to High Cost Medicines in Australian Hospitals." University of Sydney, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1008.
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Doctor of Philosophy(PhD)In the public hospital sector in Australia there is no dedicated scheme to offset costs associated with high cost medications (HCMs) to the institution or the public. (1) Concerns exist as to the equity of access and appropriate mechanisms to manage access to HCMs in public hospitals. (2) There are gaps in the literature as to how decisions are made, and in particular, decision-making processes by which ethical, clinical and economic considerations maybe taken into account. To date, limited work has been conducted regarding the use and funding of HCMs in public hospitals. There are no published data on perceptions, concerns and attitudes, among health care decision-makers or among the community-at-large about access to HCMs in public hospitals. The research reported in this thesis describes the decision-making process and criteria used by health care decision-makers to allocate resources to HCMs in public hospitals. The investigation triangulated quantitative and qualitative methods used to collect and analyse data. Four studies were conducted to describe the decision-making process and explore the perceptions, concerns and attitudes of health care decision-makers and the perceptions of members of the general public regarding access to HCMs in public hospitals. The first study, reported in Chapter Three, was a review of individual patient use (IPU) requests for non-formulary HCMs. This study showed that these requests had a significant impact on the capped expenditure of a public hospital. Subsequent to this review, a new policy and procedure for managing requests for HCMs for IPU was established. A high-cost drugs subcommittee (HCD-SC) operating under the auspices of the Drug and Therapeutics Committee (DTC) was created. The second study, reported in Chapter Four, described the operations of the newly formed HCD-SC. This study also evaluated the decision-making process using the ethical framework “accountability for reasonableness”. (3) Different factors were involved in decisions about access to HCMs and decisions were not solely based on effectiveness and cost. HCD-SC members considered it was important to have consistency in the way decisions were being made. The evaluation of this process allowed identification of good practices and gaps which were considered as opportunities for improvement. The third study, reported in Chapter Five, found that health care decision-makers in an Area Health Service echoed the concerns and agreed about the problems associated with access to HCMs expressed by the HCD-SC members. These studies concluded that the majority of decision-makers wanted an explicit, systematic process to allocate resources to HCMs. These studies also identified tensions between funding systems and hospital decision-making. According to participants there were no mechanisms in place to systematically capture, analyse and share the lessons learned between the macro level (ie. Federal, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme - PBS) and the meso level (ie. Institution, public hospital) regarding funding for HCMs. Furthermore, decision-makers considered there are strong incentives for cost-shifting between the Commonwealth and the States. Health care decision-makers also acknowledged the importance of public participation in decision-making regarding allocation of resources to HCMs in public hospitals. However the results of these studies showed that those decisions were not generally made in consultation with the community. Decision-makers perceived that the general public does not have good general knowledge about access to HCMs in public hospitals. A survey of members of the general public, reported in Chapter Six, was then conducted. The survey aimed to gather information about the knowledge and views of members of the general public about access to HCMs in public hospitals. Results of this fourth study showed that respondents had good general knowledge but were poorly informed about the specifics of funding of hospitals and HCMs in private and public hospitals. The results also offered support for the development of a process to involve community members in discussion on policy on the provision of treatment and services within health care institutions and specifically, to seek the views of members of the public on the provision of HCMs and expensive services within public hospitals. In summary, the research reported in this thesis has addressed the gaps in the literature as to how decisions are made, and in particular, the decision-making process and criteria used by health care decision-makers to allocate resources to HCMs in public hospitals. In a move towards more explicitness in decision-making regarding the allocation of scarce health care resources, the findings from these studies provide an evidence base for developing strategies to improve decision-making processes regarding access to HCMs the public sector.
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Al-Zoubi, Abdallah Bader Mahmoud. "Director independence or decision bias? An investigation of alternative sources of agency costs in board decision making." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2015. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/89752/1/Abdallah_Al-Zoubi_Thesis.pdf.
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Research into boards traditionally focuses on independent monitoring of management, with studies focused on the effect of board independence on firm performance. This thesis aims to broaden the research tradition by consolidating prior research and investigating how agents may circumvent independent monitoring. Meta-analysis of previous board independence-firm performance studies indicated no systematic relationship between board independence and firm performance. Next, a series of experiments demonstrated that the presentation of recommendations to directors may bias decision making irrespective of other information presented and the independence of the decision maker. Together, results suggest that independence may be less important than the agent's motivation to misdirect the monitoring process.
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Purnomo, Deavi. "Developing collaborative planning support tools for optimised farming in Western Australia." Thesis, Curtin University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2295.
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Land-use (farm) planning is a highly complex and dynamic process. A land-use plan can be optimal at one point in time, but its currency can change quickly due to the dynamic nature of the variables driving the land-use decision-making process. These include external drivers such as weather and produce markets, that also interact with the biophysical interactions and management activities of crop production.The active environment of an annual farm planning process can be envisioned as being cone-like. At the beginning of the sowing year, the number of options open to the manager is huge, although uncertainty is high due to the inability to foresee future weather and market conditions. As the production year reveals itself, the uncertainties around weather and markets become more certain, as does the impact of weather and management activities on future production levels. This restricts the number of alternative management options available to the farm manager. Moreover, every decision made, such as crop type sown in a paddock, will constrains the range of management activities possible in that paddock for the rest of the growing season.This research has developed a prototype Land-use Decision Support System (LUDSS) to aid farm managers in their tactical farm management decision making. The prototype applies an innovative approach that mimics the way in which a farm manager and/or consultant would search for optimal solutions at a whole-farm level. This model captured the range of possible management activities available to the manager and the impact that both external (to the farm) and internal drivers have on crop production and the environment. It also captured the risk and uncertainty found in the decision space.The developed prototype is based on a Multiple Objective Decision-making (MODM) - á Posteriori approach incorporating an Exhaustive Search method. The objective set used for the model is: maximising profit and minimising environmental impact. Pareto optimisation theory was chosen as the method to select the optimal solution and a Monte Carlo simulator is integrated into the prototype to incorporate the dynamic nature of the farm decision making process. The prototype has a user-friendly front and back end to allow farmers to input data, drive the application and extract information easily.
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Maiolo, Teresa. "An action research investigation into new ways rural women in Western Australia can increase their involvement in government decision-making." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2004. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/817.
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This research investigates the role of information communication technologies (ICTs) in the promotion of rural women's participation in governmental decision-making. The origins of the research lie in apparent discrepancies between the Australian government’s high-level, policy commitment to increase rural women's involvement in government decision-making and the continuing barriers to their participation as demonstrated by researchers such as Elix and Lambert, (1998); and Wilkinson and Alston, (1999). This research deploys a feminist action research methodology to explore new ways to increase rural women's involvement in government decision-making in Western Australian. The first phase of the research, a phenomenological field study, investigated two research questions, • Why are so few rural women involved in government decision-making in Western Australia? and • What are new ways to increase rural women's involvement in government decision-making in Western Australia? The second phase of the research explored rural women's receptiveness to the implementation of information and communication technologies and any issues they had with using them. In phase one, 21 women from seven rural communities in Western Australia were interviewed to understand their experiences of the government decision-making system. Drawing on Covey's (1999) and Bronfenbrenner's (1979) frameworks, a Government decision-making framework was formulated to bring together the barriers and drivers that affect rural women's engagement with decision-making. This included three levels of factors that influence rural women's involvement - personal, interpersonal and cultural. Further, the Change strategies framework was developed to outline new ways to increase rural women's involvement in government decision-making. Five change strategies, targeting the personal resource and cultural level of the government decision making system were identified. Phase two of the study is a case study of an online meeting between 67 Western Australian rural women and the then Deputy Premier. It showed that rural women found the online government meeting reduced barriers such as limited resources of time and money, but, new barriers with using the technology emerged. A clear outcome is a paradigm shift from prioritising homogeneity to heterogeneity among government decision-makers is needed to address rural women’s different personal, interpersonal and cultural needs.
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Bolitho, Jane Johnman Social Science & Policy UNSW. "Creating space for young people, dialogue and decision making : youth justice conferencing in New South Wales Australia." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. Social Science and Policy, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/20780.
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Juvenile justiceAdministration ofNew South Wales.Juvenile delinquentsRehabilitationThis study examines the process of Youth Justice Conferencing in New South Wales within the context of the theory and aims of the restorative justice movement. Analysis of relevant literature and theory suggests that restorative justice is a broad and encompassing movement that entails a decision making process where victims, communities and offenders come together in a joint response to an offence. Although this breadth has allowed and encouraged a proliferation of programs that respond to particular needs and particular demands of culture and social context, the consequence is that both understandings and practices of restorative justices are variable. When theoretical understandings are so varied there will necessarily be a lack of commonality in the way principles are articulated. If practice is not linked directly to principled theory it is inevitable that processes will be vulnerable at all levels to the interaction between context, situations and participant characteristics that may easily deflect the focus from the true purpose of restorative justice. This thesis attempts to clarify the restorative principles relevant to the NSW program with reference to Braithwaite and Pettit???s republican theory (1990) and their notion of dominion. In turn these principles are used to identify five practical elements to be used as a framework to guide youth conferences. Such a framework highlights potential areas for improvement in conference preparation and practice. A case study approach was used to collect data and involved the observation of eighty five Youth Justice Conferences in three New South Wales conferencing regions. As well, one hundred and fifty two currently practising Youth Justice Conferencing practitioners (Police, Conveners, Managers) in New South Wales completed a mail out questionnaire. Findings from the study suggest that conference processes are influenced by the presence or absence of five particular elements: the attendance of victims, the attendance of communities, the attendance of offender support, reparation to victims, communities and offenders and the experience of non-domination during the conference space. However, findings also suggest that ???situational??? factors may mediate these key elements to enhance or compromise the overall process. This thesis suggests that many of the issues arising in NSW conferences result from the failure to articulate the links between restorative justice theory and practice. While in NSW such links may intentionally have been unarticulated in order to encourage a freedom within the process, in reality the lack of clarification has led to a freedom in discretion that sometimes diminishes the chance of success. Therefore it proposes the need for a more articulated translation of theory into principles that will in turn frame practice. In this way the thesis uses the normative theory proposed by Braithwaite and Pettit (1990) to provide an explanatory and ideal framework for best practice in NSW Youth Justice Conferencing.
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Sardana, Deepak, and deepaks@agsm edu au. "Empirical insights into the black box of decision-making in new ventures : a study based on biotechnology companies in Australia and India." The Australian National University. National Graduate School of Management, 2007. http://thesis.anu.edu.au./public/adt-ANU20080115.153853.
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Wood, Rebecca Danielle. "Why do high court judges join? joining behavior and Australia's seriatim tradition /." Diss., Connect to online resource - MSU authorized users, 2008.
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Jess, Gabrielle M. "Minding my own business: Small business owners' decision making during a response to a natural disaster in southeast Queensland, Australia." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2022. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/228750/1/Gabrielle_Jess_Thesis.pdf.
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With Australia experiencing unprecedented natural disasters, this transdisciplinary thesis is timely. It explores small business owner’s decision making during such events in Southeast Queensland alongside the affordances provided by public and non-profit entities to sustain business continuity. Using interview data of business owners’ and key informants’ from urban, peri-urban and rural communities, this study catalogued their decisions, decision processes and affordances organised around six business capitals. As predicted by the recognition primed decision theory, decisions were quick yet indicated both complexities and competencies of business owners. Fast decisions and political affordances support business owners’ survival during high consequence, disruptive events.
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D'Emden, Francis Herbert. "Adoption of conservation tillage : an application of duration analysis." University of Western Australia. School of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2006.0067.
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The global adoption and diffusion of conservation tillage has made considerable progress over the last 20 years. No-till and zero-tillage could be seen as representing the current technological end-point of the conservation tillage movement. This thesis uses descriptive statistics and both logit and duration regressions to analyse the influence of cross-sectional and time-dependent factors on the probability of no-till adoption by growers in Australia’s southern grain growing regions. Cross-section and time-series data on individual adoption decisions was gathered through interviews and employed in conjunction with generic time series data from various government agencies in a duration analysis modelling framework. Descriptive statistics suggest that weed management and herbicide resistance are important considerations for growers in their tillage decisions, predominantly due to the substitution of herbicides for the physical weed control provided by cultivation. Logit and duration regressions identify a number of significant factors influencing growers’ adoption decisions. These include growers’ perceptions of herbicide efficacy and sowing timeliness in no-till systems; the declining price of glyphosate relative to diesel; average annual rainfall and growers’ proximity to other adopters and opportunities to observe the beneficial effects of no-till. The results suggest that research and development of integrated weed management practices that are compatible with no-till systems is highly important if no-till systems are to be sustained in Australia’s southern wheatbelt. Such research and development should acknowledge the high value which growers place on locally generated information and the channels used to acquire such information, namely local extension events and consulting services. This thesis shows how duration analysis, with its ability to take account of both cross sectional and time-varying factors, can provide a statistical modelling framework better suited to the study of adoption decisions than traditional cross sectional methods based on logit and tobit analyses.
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Amein, Hussein Aly Abbass. "Computational intelligence techniques for decision making : with applications to the dairy industry." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2000. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/36867/1/36867_Digitised%20Thesis.pdf.
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Marre, Jean-Baptiste. "Quantifying economic values of coastal and marine ecosystem services and assessing their use in decision-making : applications in New Caledonia and Australia." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2014. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/76132/1/Jean-Baptiste_Marre_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis deals with the issues of quantifying economic values of coastal and marine ecosystem services and assessing their use in decision-making. The first analytical part of the thesis focuses on estimating non-market use and non-use values, with an application in New-Caledonia using Discrete Choice Experiment. The second part examines how and to what extent the economic valuation of ecosystem services is used in coastal management decision-making with an application in Australia. Using a multi-criteria analysis, the relative importance of ecological, social and economic evaluation criteria is also assessed in the context of coastal development.
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Cohen, Steven. "International postgraduate students and their reasons for choosing to study at public universities in Perth, Western Australia." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2017. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2043.
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The global higher education sector has become increasingly competitive. A large segment of that market now consists of attracting international students. Understanding why these students are motivated to study overseas is crucial for universities seeking to attract the transnational students as well as for the host country. Trading education is now Australia’s third largest export. As the international market for students becomes more crowded, it is imperative that thorough and concise research occurs to assist local universities within Australia to maintain their competitive advantage.
Perth, Western Australia (WA) comprises a small segment of the international Australian tertiary education market. An insufficient evidence base exists to aid local universities with strategic planning to maintain their competitive advantage in attracting international students. The current literature is sparse in analysing Australian state based international student decision-making. Most research focuses upon a generalised understanding of international student motivations concentrating on specific motivational factors.
To enrich and contribute to the current research literature, a comprehensive qualitative study was undertaken to explore the decision-making processes of postgraduate international students who chose to study in Perth. The research explored how and why these students chose Perth as their study destination. The study employed a variety of decision-making theories, most importantly the Push-Pull Theory of international student decision-making to test the applicability of a generalised model of international student flows on the local market.
Data sources included international postgraduate students who are currently or have completed their studies at a public university in Perth. Data were collected using a variety of qualitative instruments including semi structured open-ended interviews and a focus group.
The findings suggested that postgraduate students in Perth are sensitive to course price, with those on scholarships submitting such an undertaking would otherwise be impossible. Students, particularly from countries suffering economic or political disruptions considered international study as a pathway to immigration. These participants viewed Australia as a stable and prosperous nation, which offered them a ‘good life’ without the problems of their home countries. Most participants also considered WA as a culturally pluralistic destination, with a relaxed and outdoor lifestyle, without the pressures and costs of larger Australian cities like Sydney and Melbourne. Participants also sought to choose their preferred university on the recommendation of family or friends.
The study has implications for how Australian universities market their courses to international students. The study contributes to the growing literature on international student decision-making. This knowledge is critical to both recruitment strategies and government policies to continue to attract international students.
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Coffey, Anne M. "A comparative study of controversy in the education systems of Western Australia, Victoria and New Zealand: Community participation in government schools 1985-1993." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1998. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1001.
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The release of Better Schools in Western Australia: A Programme for Improvement (1987), in line with other public sector agency reforms; contained a prescription for the restructuring of the Education Department of Western Australia from 11 bureaucratic to a corporate management system of school administration. These changes were intended to render the education system, and especially schools more flexible, responsive and accountable. Among the proposals for educational restructuring was a new opportunity for community participation through ''school based decision making groups." Contemporaneously, the education systems in Victoria and New Zealand were undergoing similar reforms. The research agenda for this thesis is based on two questions. The first research question is: In what ways did the reforms conducted by the governments in Western Australia, Victoria and New Zealand change the participation of the school community in school decision making in state schools during the period 1985-1993? The extent to which the new organisational structures, based upon corporate management, facilitated the admission of the school community into the school decision making process is investigated. In order to facilitate the analysis of policy, this thesis develops a conceptualisation of the notion of controversy. The controversy framework involves the investigation of a number of elements of a controversy - stimulus, context, events, issues, arguments, protagonists, constraints, consequences and closure. The use of this framework is intended to assist in educational policy analysis by highlighting and elaborating upon the interdependent elements, including power relationships, involved in educational policy formulation and implementation. The second research question is: How effective is controversy as a framing device for educational policy analysis? The adequacy of “controversy” as a framing device is evaluated at the conclusion of the thesis. In order to investigate the research problems a variety of data was gathered and analysed. Scrutiny of the major Government and Education Department policy documents us well as a review of literature such as journals, books, newspapers, and documents produced by organisations such as teacher unions, was undertaken. In the case of Western Australia face-to-face interviews were conducted. A series of video-taped interviews with major actors in the controversy in Western Australia was also used in the data gathering process. The data was then systematically ordered using the controversy framework which enabled comparison of the controversies in Western Australia, Victoria and New Zealand. The conclusions drawn focus upon the manner in which corporate management and genuine democratic community participation are antipathetic. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the school community was unable to exert meaningful influence upon the direction being charted for government schools. As a framing device for educational policy analysis it is concluded that controversy, at this preliminary stage, appears to have merit end further use and refinement of this framework is recommended.
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Howell, Julie A. "Extending the reach: Exploring what it means to be a parent of a hostel adolescent assisting with their child's career development : a case study." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1998. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/977.
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Research indicates that parents are an important influence on the career development of their children, but, that they have often been considered as an untapped resource. Rural high school aged students, who reside in metropolitan hostels, often live with their parents for less than 15 weeks per year. How do their parents contribute to their career development? This one year research explored the involvement of parents of hostel children, in the career development process of their youth. Through a case study, an analysis described what it means to be a parent of a hostel adolescent with respects to how they help their youth make career decisions. Based within an ecological framework, parents of hostel adolescents completed a questionnaire. Subsets of this group participated in interviews that focused on narratives and a modification of the critical incident technique as used by Young et al. (1992, 1998), and/or group interviews incorporating a ‘direct to print’ methodology as used by Jeffery et al. (1992).This study supported early findings recognising the important parental role in the career development of todays youth by exploring five areas. The cultural capital of parents of hostel adolescents indicates that they have a real sense of pride in their rural status, actively choosing to live in rural centres. They value honesty and respect, enjoying the freedom ‘country’ life affords them. There are general concerns of safety when their children are living in urban centres and at times an acute awareness of costs. Specific concerns for career development focus on parents perceiving they have a lack of knowledge, skills and expertise essential to adequately assist their childs career development. This situation appears to be compounded by a lack of awareness of resources and/or a reluctance to access them. Parent intentions are to instill in their children independence, responsibility, initiative, perseverance and respect. The most common focal point for career development is the selection of subjects for studies and/or courses to complete. Parents of hostel adolescents favour delivery activities that involve them advising their children and requesting and giving information. They encourage and support their children, showing interest and communicating values. They also see the need to set expectations and limits. This research illustrates that parents of hostel adolescents, although not necessarily attempting to influence particular occupational choice are active agents in influencing their children in a broad range of areas in career development.
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Black, Terry. "A finance paradigmatic approach to regulatory issues." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1998.
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Hall, Edward John. "The influence of occasion on consumer choice: an occasion based, value oriented investigation of wine purchase, using means-end chain analysis." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2003. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phh1756.pdf.
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Includes list of Supplementary refereed publications relating to thesis; and of Refereed conference papers, as appendix 1 Includes bibliograhical references (p. 316-343) Focusses particularly on the purchase of wine and the factors that influence consumer choice and the values that drive the decision process across different consumption occasions. The effectiveness of occasion as part of the theoretical model of means-end chain analysis is investigated, as well as the feasibility of occasion in the Olsen and Thach (2001) conceptual framework of consumer behavior relating to wine.
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Koo, Fung Kuen. "Disharmony between Chinese and Western views about preventative health : a qualitative investigation of the health beliefs and behaviour of older Hong Kong Chinese people in Australia." University of Sydney, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1610.
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Doctor of PhilosophyThis study explores the health beliefs and preventive health behaviours of older Hong Kong Chinese people resident in Australia. Participation in physical activity was used as the case study. There were two frameworks used to shape the research. Because of their perceived influence on the health beliefs and practices of Hong Kong Chinese people, the traditional Chinese philosophies of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism provided the philosophical framework. The Theory of Planned Behaviour provided a theoretical framework for understanding the target group's preventive health behaviour. Data was collected by means of in-depth interviews, participant observation and case study. Twenty-two informants were interviewed, their transcripts analysed, summarised and typologised, identifying six states of physical activity participation. Findings demonstrated that this target group possessed a holistic view of health, with food taking a special role in preventive care and self-treatment at times of illness. The Cantonese terms used to denote “physical activity” caused confusion among the target group. Most interpreted it as meaning deliberate planned body movement, strength-enhancing activities or exercise, although some did see it as including mundane daily activities and chores. Lack of time, no interest and laziness were reported as the main reasons for low participation in deliberate planned physical activity. Cultural, social and environmental determinants were the intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing attitudes toward physical activity, as well as perceived social supports and perceived control over physical activity participation barriers. To a large extent, these interactive determinants of health were rooted in the three traditional Chinese philosophies mentioned above. The thesis concludes by arguing that rather than simply advocating activities designed for other populations, health promotion strategies and education need to create links to the traditions of this target group and also clarify their conception of physical activity.
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Moloney, Lawrence, and l. moloney@latrobe edu au. "JUDGEMENTS AS SOCIAL NARRATIVE: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF APPEAL JUDGEMENTS IN CLOSELY CONTESTED PARENTING DISPUTES IN THE FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA 1988 � 1999." La Trobe University. Institute for Education, 2002. http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au./thesis/public/adt-LTU20070411.144416.
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The thesis is divided into two sections. Section 1 explores the psycho-social and legal constructions of family, parenting and children that have influenced judicial decision-making in parenting disputes following separation and divorce. Particular attention is paid, first, to the circumstances surrounding the shift from paternal to maternally-based presumptions about the parenting of children; and second, to the more recent and somewhat puzzling shift to a presumption of gender neutrality. The extent to which fault has continued as a less overt decision-making criterion is also considered.
In Section 2, judgements in recent closely contested parenting cases in the Family Court of Australia are analysed as contemporary socio-legal narratives. A systematic, in-depth examination of a heterogeneous sample of publicly accessible cases revealed that gender-based assumptions continue to dominate judicial thinking about parenting and family structure. In particular, it was found that outcomes that favoured mothers correlated with perceived evidence of conformity to a maternal stereotype of self-sacrifice on behalf of the child(ren). Outcomes favouring fathers usually resulted from situations in which mothers were judged to fall short of these stereotyped expectations. Fathers� roles, even in cases in which their applications were successful, generally continued to be equated with breadwinning and support. Their capacities as nurturers to their children were either not mentioned or treated with scepticism.
In the light of the findings, tensions between continuing gender-based roles in families, public attitudes to parenting and preferred family structure, and recent changes in our scientific knowledge base regarding gender and parenting are reviewed. Implications of the persistence of the breadwinning/nurturing dichotomy both within the Australian culture and family court judgements are discussed. Particular attention is drawn to the impact of the confused circumstances in which gender-neutral parenting principles came about in the 1970s.
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Ho, Kwok Ming. "Use of prognostic scoring systems to predict outcomes of critically ill patients." University of Western Australia. School of Medicine and Pharmacology, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2009.0101.
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[Tuncated abstract] This research thesis consists of five sections. Section one provides the background information (chapter 1) and a description of characteristics of the cohort and the methods of analysis (chapter 2). The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II scoring system is one of commonly used severity of illness scoring systems in many intensive care units (ICUs). Section two of this thesis includes an assessment of the performance of the APACHE II scoring system in an Australian context. First, the performance of the APACHE II scoring system in predicting hospital mortality of critically ill patients in an ICU of a tertiary university teaching hospital in Western Australia was assessed (Chapter 3). Second, a simple modification of the traditional APACHE II scoring system, the 'admission APACHE II scoring system', generated by replacing the worst first 24-hour data by the ICU admission physiological and laboratory data was assessed (Chapter 3). Indigenous and Aboriginal Australians constitute a significant proportion of the population in Western Australia (3.2%) and have marked social disadvantage when compared to other Australians. The difference in the pattern of critical illness between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and also whether the performance of the APACHE II scoring system was comparable between these two groups of critically ill patients in Western Australia was assessed (Chapter 4). Both discrimination and calibration are important indicators of the performance of a prognostic scoring system. ... The use of the APACHE II scoring system in patients readmitted to ICU during the same hospitalisation was evaluated and also whether incorporating events prior to the ICU readmission to the APACHE II scoring system would improve its ability to predict hospital mortality of ICU readmission was assessed in chapter 10. Whilst there have been a number of studies investigating predictors of post-ICU in-hospital mortality none have investigated whether unresolved or latent inflammation and sepsis may be an important predictor. Section four examines the role of inflammatory markers measured at ICU discharge on predicting ICU re- 4 admission (Chapter 11) and in-hospital mortality during the same hospitalisation (Chapter 12) and whether some of these inflammatory markers were more important than organ failure score and the APACHE II scoring system in predicting these outcomes. Section five describes the development of a new prognostic scoring system that can estimate median survival time and long term survival probabilities for critically ill patients (Chapter 13). An assessment of the effects of other factors such as socioeconomic status and Aboriginality on the long term survival of critically ill patients in an Australian ICU was assessed (Chapter 14). Section six provides the conclusions. Chapter 15 includes a summary and discussion of the findings of this thesis and outlines possible future directions for further research in this important aspect of intensive care medicine.
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Bennetts, Helen. "Environmental issues and house design in Australia : images from theory and practice /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2000. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phb472.pdf.
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Prideaux, Lee-Ann, and n/a. "A Longitudinal Evaluation of a Theoretically Derived Adolescent Career Education Intervention." Griffith University. School of Applied Psychology, 2003. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20040701.093444.
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Theoretically derived career education programs are not well documented in the career development literature. This remains so, despite growing recognition of the negative effects of a schism between theory and practice. This thesis describes a research project that attempted to incorporate theory into practice. The two primary aims were to test and extend career development theory, and to evaluate a theoretically derived career education program. The participants were 296 Year 10 students (mean age = 14.5 years; 147 females & 149 males) attending a government high school in a low socio-economic area of a large Australian city. Career maturity, career decision-making self-efficacy, and career indecision were the key career development variables examined. Students' decision coping patterns were also investigated. There were three studies in all. The first gathered qualitative data from a stratified random sample (N = 30) of staff and parents at the school where the research took place. This study assessed the career decision-making development needs of the students. It also provided context specific information about the opportunity structure of these adolescents, including perceived barriers to making sound career-related decisions. Findings centred upon the belief that students lacked self confidence and were in need of training in life skills generally, and decision-making and goal setting skills in particular. The interviewees also painted a grim picture about students' complacency and sense of resignation to unemployment. The second study involved the cross-sectional examination of baseline survey data, which obtained measures of the career development variables under investigation as well as relevant demographic and contextual data including part-time work experience, school achievement level, and parents' education and employment status. A thorough review of the career development literature, combined with the qualitative data, and the findings of this cross-sectional study, served to guide the design of a career education intervention. Social cognitive career theory's choice model (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) was used as the framework for the career education intervention, which ran for six weeks with one 70 minute lesson per week. Relationships amongst the key variables established previously in the literature were reflected in the results of the cross-sectional study. Demographic and contextual variables were also found to impact upon students' level of career development and decision-making behaviour in anticipated ways. The third study was a longitudinal assessment of the intervention using the baseline survey and three more surveys administered during the same school year. The short and long term effects of the intervention were examined according to mode of delivery, and comparisons were made with controls. The researcher was the career development "expert" facilitator for the implementation of the intervention to 134 students between the first and second testing times. A wait-listed control group of 118 students undertook the intervention between the second and third testing times with regular classroom teachers facilitating it. The remaining students were enrolled in a generic school-based vocational course and were not given the intervention. There was a lapse of eight weeks between each of the first three testing times with the fourth test taken 12 weeks later. Despite its brief nature, the intervention was found to assist students' career development in a variety of ways. It led to gains in career maturity for females regardless of who taught them. However, males' career maturity was enhanced only if teachers facilitated the intervention. Levels of career indecision and maladaptive decision-making coping patterns were also reduced by the intervention with teacher facilitation. A matched sample of students who did the intervention exhibited significantly better outcomes than those doing the generic vocational course. The long term impact of the intervention was found to be generally beneficial, although some gains were not maintained 12 weeks later. Students' career decision-making self-efficacy and their resoluteness toward decision-making were not affected by the intervention. The research findings led to an appeal for the realignment of focus in career education. This has implications for career education curriculum development in Australia, which needs to shift from its ad hoc, information giving approach, to more comprehensive, long-term, and intensive programming. Career education that enhances the personal skills students need to meet the demands of the world of work in the twenty-first century is required. Career process skills are of paramount importance. Specialist training for career guidance officers is also recommended and more research incorporating theory and practice is advocated.
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Mwebaza, Rose. "The right to public participation in environmental decision making a comparative study of the legal regimes for the participation of indigneous [sic] people in the conservation and management of protected areas in Australia and Uganda /." Phd thesis, Australia : Macquarie University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/22980.
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"August 2006"Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Law, 2007.
Bibliography: p. 343-364.
Abstract -- Candidate's certification -- Acknowledgements -- Acronyms -- Chapter one -- Chapter two: Linking public participation to environmental decision making and natural resources management -- Chapter three: The right to public participation -- Chapter four: Implementing the right to public participation in environmental decision making : the participation of indigenous peoples in the conservation and management of protected areas -- Chapter five: The legal and policy regime for the participation of indigenous peoples in the conservation and management of protected areas in Australia -- Chapter six: The legal and policy regime for the participation of indigenous peoples in the conservation and management of protected areas in Uganda -- Chapter seven: Implementing public participation in environmental decision making in Australia and Uganda : a comparative analysis -- Chapter eight: The right to public participation in enviromental decision making and natural resources management : summary and conclusions -- Bibliography.
In recognition of the importance of public participation as a basis for good governance and democracy, Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary General to the United Nations, has noted that: "Good governance demands the consent and participation of the governed and the full participation and lasting involvement of all citizens in the future of their nation. The will of the people must be the basis of governmental authority. That is the foundation of democracy. That is the foundation of good governance Good governance will give every citizen, young or old, man or woman, a real and lasting stake in the future of his or her society". The above quotation encapsulates the essence of what this thesis has set out to do; to examine the concept of public participation and its application in environmental governance within the context of the participation of indigenous peoples in the conservation and management of protected areas in Australia and Uganda. The concept of public participation is of such intrinsic importance that it has emerged as one of the fundamental principles underpinning environmental governance and therefore forms the basis for this study. -- Environmental governance, as a concept that captures the ideal of public participation, is basically about decisions and the manner in which they are made. It is about who has 'a seat at the table' during deliberations and how the interests of affected communities and ecosystems are represented. It is also about how decision makers are held responsible for the integrity of the process and for the results of their decisions. It relates to business people, property owners, farmers and consumers. Environmental governance is also about the management of actions relating to the environment and sustainable development. It includes individual choices and actions like participating in public hearings or joining local watchdog groups or, as consumers, choosing to purchase environmentally friendly products. -- The basic principles behind good governance and good environmental decision making have been accepted for more than a decade. The 178 nations that attended the Rio Summit in 1992 all endorsed these nvironmental governance principles when they signed the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (Rio Declaration) - a charter of 27 principles meant to guide the world community towards sustainable development. The international community re-emphasised the importance of these principles at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. -- The right to public participation in nvironmental decision making and natural resources management is one of the 27 principles endorsed by the nations of the world and is embodied in the provisions of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration.
Environmental decisions occur in many contexts. They range from personal choices like whether to walk or drive to work, how much firewood to burn, or whether to have another child. They encompass the business decisions that communities or corporations make about where to locate their facilities, how much to emphasise eco-friendly product design and how much land to preserve. They include national laws enacted to conserve the environment, to regulate pollution, manage public land or regulate trade. They take into account international commitments made to regulate trade in endangered species or limit acid rain or C02 emissions. -- Environmental decisions also involve a wide range of actors: individuals; local, state and national governments; community and tribal authorities such as indigenous peoples; civic organisations; interested groups; labour unions; national and transactional corporations; scientists; and international bodies such as the United Nations, the European Union, and the World Trade Organisation. -- Each of the actors have different interests, different levels of authority and different information, making their actions complex and frequently putting their decisions at odds with each other and with ecological processes that sustain the natural systems we depend on. -- Accordingly, this thesis aims to examine participation in environmental decision making in a way that demonstrates these complexities and interdependencies. It will explore the theoretical and conceptual basis for public participation and how it is incorporated into international and domestic environmental and natural resources law and policy. -- It will examine public participation in the context of the legal and policy framework for the conservation and management of protected areas and will use case studies involving the participation of indigeneous peoples in Australia and Uganda to provide the basis for a comparative analysis. -- The thesis will also faces on a comparative analysis of the effectiveness and meaningfulness of the process for public participation in environmental decision making in Australia and Uganda. There is extensive literature on the purposes to which participation may be put; the stages in the project cycle at which it should be employed; the level and power with regard to the decision making process which should be afforded to the participants; the methods which may be appropriate under the different circumstances, as well as detailed descriptions of methods; approaches and forms or typologies of public participation; and the benefits and problems of such participation.
However, there is not much significant literature that examines and analyses the meaningfulness and effectiveness of the contextual processes of such participation. This is despite the widespread belief in the importance and value of public participation, particularly by local and indigenous communities, even in the face of disillusionment caused by deceit, manipulation and tokenism. Accordingly, the thesis will use case studies to demonstrate the meaningfulness and effectiveness or otherwise of public participation in environmental decision making in protected area management. -- Increasingly, the terminology of sustainable development is more appropriate to describe contemporary policy objectives in this area, with an emphasis on promoting local livelihood and poverty alleviation within the constraints of ecosystem management. However, the domestic legal frameworks, and institutional development, in Australia and Uganda tend to reflect earlier concepts of environmental and natural resources management (referred to as environmental management in this thesis). There are some significant differences between a North (developed) nation and a South (developing) nation, in terms of the emphasis on economic objectives, political stability, resources and legal and administrative capacity. The thesis intends to explore these differences for the comparative analysis and to draw on them to highlight the complexities and interdependencies of public participation by indigenous peoples in environmental decision making, natural resources and protected area management.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
377 p
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Ernst, Wolfgang F. "The economic rationale for stochastic urban transport models and travel behaviour : a mathematical programming approach to quantitative analysis with Perth data." UWA Business School, 2003. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2005.0004.
Full textAbstract:
[Formulae and special characters can only be approximated here. Please see the pdf version of the abstract for an accurate reproduction.] This thesis reviews, extends and applies to urban traffic analysis the entropy concept of Shannon and Luce's mathematical psychology in a fairly complex and mathematically demanding model of human decision making, if it is solved as a deeply nested structure of logit calculus. Recognising consumers' different preferences and the universal propensity to seek the best choice when going to some desired goal (k), a transparent mathematical program (MP) is developed: the equivalent of a nested multinomial logit model without its inherent computational difficulty. The MP model makes a statistical assessment of individual decisions based on a randomised (measurable) utility within a given choice structure: some path through a diagram (Rk, Dk), designed a priori, of a finite number of sequential choices. The Equivalence Theorem (ET) formalises the process and states a non-linear MP with linear constraints that maximises collective satisfaction: utility plus weighted entropy, where the weight (1/θn) is a behavioural parameter to be calibrated in each case, eg for the Perth CBD. An optimisation subject to feasible routes through the (Rk, Dk) network thus captures the rational behaviour of consumers on their individually different best-choice decision paths towards their respective goals (k). This theory has been applied to urban traffic assignment before: a Stochastic User Equi-librium (SUE). What sets this thesis apart is its focus on MP models that can be solved with standard Operations Research software (eg MINOS), models for which the ET is a conditio sine qua non. A brief list of SUE examples in the literature includes Fisk's logit SUE model in (impractically many) route flows. Dial's STOCH algorithm obviates path enumeration, yet is a logit multi-path assignment procedure, not an MP model; it is nei-ther destination oriented nor an optimisation towards a SUE. A revision of Dial's method is provided, named STOCH[k], that computes primal variables (node and link flows) and Lagrangian duals (the satisfaction difference n→k). Sheffi & Powell presented an unconstrained optimisation problem, but favoured a probit SUE, defying closed formulae and standard OR software. Their model corresponds to the (constrained) dual model here, yet the specifics of our primary MP model and its dual are possible only if one restricts himself to logit SUE models, including the ET, which is logit-specific. A real world application needs decomposition, and the Perth CBD example is iteratively solved by Partial Linearisation, switching from (measured) disutility minimisation to Sheffi & Powell's Method of Successive Averages near the optimum. The methodology is demonstrated on the Perth Central Business District (CBD). To that end, parameter Θ is calibrated on Main Roads' traffic count data over the years 1997/98 and 1998/99. The method is a revision of Liu & Fricker's simultaneous estimation of not only Θ but an appropriate trip matrix also. Our method handles the more difficult variable costs (congestion), incomplete data (missing observations) and observation errors (wrong data). Finally, again based on Main Roads' data (a sub-area trip matrix), a Perth CBD traffic assignment is computed, (a) as a logit SUE and - for comparison - (b) as a DUE (using the PARTAN method of Florian, Guélat and Spiess). The results are only superficially similar. In conclusion, the methodology has the potential to replace current DUE models and to deepen transport policy analysis, taking into account individual behaviour and a money-metric utility that quantifies 'social benefits', for instance in a cost-benefit-analysis.
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Merollini, Katharina M. D. "Evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of strategies claiming to reduce the risk of surgical site infections following primary total hip arthroplasty." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2012. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/54667/1/Katharina_Merollini_Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Background
Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a commonly performed procedure and numbers are increasing with ageing populations. One of the most serious complications in THA are surgical site infections (SSIs), caused by pathogens entering the wound during the procedure. SSIs are associated with a substantial burden for health services, increased mortality and reduced functional outcomes in patients. Numerous approaches to preventing these infections exist but there is no gold standard in practice and the cost-effectiveness of alternate strategies is largely unknown.
Objectives
The aim of this project was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of strategies claiming to reduce deep surgical site infections following total hip arthroplasty in Australia. The objectives were:
1. Identification of competing strategies or combinations of strategies that are clinically relevant to the control of SSI related to hip arthroplasty
2. Evidence synthesis and pooling of results to assess the volume and quality of evidence claiming to reduce the risk of SSI following total hip arthroplasty
3. Construction of an economic decision model incorporating cost and health outcomes for each of the identified strategies
4. Quantification of the effect of uncertainty in the model
5. Assessment of the value of perfect information among model parameters to inform future data collection
Methods
The literature relating to SSI in THA was reviewed, in particular to establish definitions of these concepts, understand mechanisms of aetiology and microbiology, risk factors, diagnosis and consequences as well as to give an overview of existing infection prevention measures. Published economic evaluations on this topic were also reviewed and limitations for Australian decision-makers identified.
A Markov state-transition model was developed for the Australian context and subsequently validated by clinicians. The model was designed to capture key events related to deep SSI occurring within the first 12 months following primary THA. Relevant infection prevention measures were selected by reviewing clinical guideline recommendations combined with expert elicitation. Strategies selected for evaluation were the routine use of pre-operative antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) versus no use of antibiotic prophylaxis (No AP) or in combination with antibiotic-impregnated cement (AP & ABC) or laminar air operating rooms (AP & LOR).
The best available evidence for clinical effect size and utility parameters was harvested from the medical literature using reproducible methods. Queensland hospital data were extracted to inform patients’ transitions between model health states and related costs captured in assigned treatment codes. Costs related to infection prevention were derived from reliable hospital records and expert opinion.
Uncertainty of model input parameters was explored in probabilistic sensitivity analyses and scenario analyses and the value of perfect information was estimated.
Results
The cost-effectiveness analysis was performed from a health services perspective using a hypothetical cohort of 30,000 THA patients aged 65 years. The baseline rate of deep SSI was 0.96% within one year of a primary THA. The routine use of antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) was highly cost-effective and resulted in cost savings of over $1.6m whilst generating an extra 163 QALYs (without consideration of uncertainty). Deterministic and probabilistic analysis (considering uncertainty) identified antibiotic prophylaxis combined with antibiotic-impregnated cement (AP & ABC) to be the most cost-effective strategy. Using AP & ABC generated the highest net monetary benefit (NMB) and an incremental $3.1m NMB compared to only using antibiotic prophylaxis. There was a very low error probability that this strategy might not have the largest NMB (<5%). Not using antibiotic prophylaxis (No AP) or using both antibiotic prophylaxis combined with laminar air operating rooms (AP & LOR) resulted in worse health outcomes and higher costs.
Sensitivity analyses showed that the model was sensitive to the initial cohort starting age and the additional costs of ABC but the best strategy did not change, even for extreme values. The cost-effectiveness improved for a higher proportion of cemented primary THAs and higher baseline rates of deep SSI. The value of perfect information indicated that no additional research is required to support the model conclusions.
Conclusions
Preventing deep SSI with antibiotic prophylaxis and antibiotic-impregnated cement has shown to improve health outcomes among hospitalised patients, save lives and enhance resource allocation. By implementing a more beneficial infection control strategy, scarce health care resources can be used more efficiently to the benefit of all members of society.
The results of this project provide Australian policy makers with key information about how to efficiently manage risks of infection in THA.
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Gudes, Ori. "Developing a framework for planning healthy communities : the Logan Beaudesert health decision support system." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2012. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50783/1/Ori_Gudes_Thesis.pdf.
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In the last few decades, the focus on building healthy communities has grown significantly (Ashton, 2009). There is growing evidence that new approaches to planning are required to address the challenges faced by contemporary communities. These approaches need to be based on timely access to local information and collaborative planning processes (Murray, 2006; Scotch & Parmanto, 2006; Ashton, 2009; Kazda et al., 2009). However, there is little research to inform the methods that can support this type of responsive, local, collaborative and consultative health planning (Northridge et al., 2003). Some research justifies the use of decision support systems (DSS) as a tool to support planning for healthy communities. DSS have been found to increase collaboration between stakeholders and communities, improve the accuracy and quality of the decision-making process, and improve the availability of data and information for health decision-makers (Nobre et al., 1997; Cromley & McLafferty, 2002; Waring et al., 2005). Geographic information systems (GIS) have been suggested as an innovative method by which to implement DSS because they promote new ways of thinking about evidence and facilitate a broader understanding of communities. Furthermore, literature has indicated that online environments can have a positive impact on decision-making by enabling access to information by a broader audience (Kingston et al., 2001). However, only limited research has examined the implementation and impact of online DSS in the health planning field. Previous studies have emphasised the lack of effective information management systems and an absence of frameworks to guide the way in which information is used to promote informed decisions in health planning. It has become imperative to develop innovative approaches, frameworks and methods to support health planning. Thus, to address these identified gaps in the knowledge, this study aims to develop a conceptual planning framework for creating healthy communities and examine the impact of DSS in the Logan Beaudesert area. Specifically, the study aims to identify the key elements and domains of information that are needed to develop healthy communities, to develop a conceptual planning framework for creating healthy communities, to collaboratively develop and implement an online GIS-based Health DSS (i.e., HDSS), and to examine the impact of the HDSS on local decision-making processes. The study is based on a real-world case study of a community-based initiative that was established to improve public health outcomes and promote new ways of addressing chronic disease. The study involved the development of an online GIS-based health decision support system (HDSS), which was applied in the Logan Beaudesert region of Queensland, Australia. A planning framework was developed to account for the way in which information could be organised to contribute to a healthy community. The decision support system was developed within a unique settings-based initiative Logan Beaudesert Health Coalition (LBHC) designed to plan and improve the health capacity of Logan Beaudesert area in Queensland, Australia. This setting provided a suitable platform to apply a participatory research design to the development and implementation of the HDSS. Therefore, the HDSS was a pilot study examined the impact of this collaborative process, and the subsequent implementation of the HDSS on the way decision-making was perceived across the LBHC. As for the method, based on a systematic literature review, a comprehensive planning framework for creating healthy communities has been developed. This was followed by using a mixed method design, data were collected through both qualitative and quantitative methods. Specifically, data were collected by adopting a participatory action research (PAR) approach (i.e., PAR intervention) that informed the development and conceptualisation of the HDSS. A pre- and post-design was then used to determine the impact of the HDSS on decision-making. The findings of this study revealed a meaningful framework for organising information to guide planning for healthy communities. This conceptual framework provided a comprehensive system within which to organise existing data. The PAR process was useful in engaging stakeholders and decision-making in the development and implementation of the online GIS-based DSS. Through three PAR cycles, this study resulted in heightened awareness of online GIS-based DSS and openness to its implementation. It resulted in the development of a tailored system (i.e., HDSS) that addressed the local information and planning needs of the LBHC. In addition, the implementation of the DSS resulted in improved decision- making and greater satisfaction with decisions within the LBHC. For example, the study illustrated the culture in which decisions were made before and after the PAR intervention and what improvements have been observed after the application of the HDSS. In general, the findings indicated that decision-making processes are not merely informed (consequent of using the HDSS tool), but they also enhance the overall sense of ‗collaboration‘ in the health planning practice. For example, it was found that PAR intervention had a positive impact on the way decisions were made. The study revealed important features of the HDSS development and implementation process that will contribute to future research. Thus, the overall findings suggest that the HDSS is an effective tool, which would play an important role in the future for significantly improving the health planning practice.
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Gillis, Shelley A. "The domains of vocational assessment decision-making." 2003. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/667.
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This study investigated the latent structure of vocational assessment decision-making. It also sought to examine how the background characteristics of the assessor (such as age, gender, assessment experience and location) affected the relationship between the constructs proposed as underpinning assessment decision-making. For each of the eight constructs explored, a set of rating scale items were developed to measure the intensity of the assessors’ attitudes and beliefs.
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Cochrane, Susan Frances. "The personal interest and decision-making about medical treatment." Phd thesis, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/150997.
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Day, Carla Lynelle. "The role of values in employee decision making in the Australian Department of Defence." Phd thesis, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/151194.
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Elliott, Taryn. "An exploration of unit Commander decision-making in the Australian Army." 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/57415.
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Title page, table of contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library.In recent years, the adequacy of classical models to explain expert decision-making in environments involving time pressure, high stakes, uncertainty and dynamic conditions has been questioned. An alternative model to describe decision-making in these conditions is the recognition-primed decision-making (RPD) model (Klein, 1989). This model is descriptive and suggests that expert decision-makers learn to recognise typical situations and solutions and use these mental shortcuts to fill in gaps in their understanding and inform their decisionmaking. The model has been validated in many domains (Klein, 1999), but to date has not been applied in the Australian Army. Moreover, the model has been criticised because it largely ignores the influence of the wider context in dynamic decision-making. The aim of this research is to address these issues. The setting has been the unit level of operations in the Australian Army. In particular, the focus is on the Commander, as slhe has the largest impact on the strategic direction of an operation. The approach combines a number of complementary data collection methods, drawing on both qualitative and quantitative data. The main methods of data collection include in-depth, semi-structured interviewing; Q-sort analysis; and observational research in the field. These are triangulated to increase validity. Computer simulation is also used to investigate its adequacy for further naturalistic decision-making (NDM) research. The outcome is frrstly a validation of the RPD model in the Australian Army and revision to include contextual variables perceived to impact on NDM. The effect of these contextual variables on RPD requires further research using naturalistic techniques. Computer simulation has been found to be an unsatisfactory technique to employ in this instance. These are important outcomes as the Australian Army moves towards an era of Networked Centric Warfare where established structures for team work are being revised. Establishing a better understanding of contextual factors that impact on NDM enables policy makers to take this knowledge into account when hypothesising about the effect that structural changes might have on business processes. Thus, having better defined models, and research techniques identified to achieve this, is a benefit.
http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1277501
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2007
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McNamara, Leslie, University of Western Sydney, College of Health and Science, and School of Natural Sciences. "The role of water quality modelling in decision-making." 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/18899.
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Catchment management organisations often use computer-based water quality models to support their decision-making needs. However, literature suggests that model use by catchment managers can be highly problematical. Commonly reported issues that negatively impact upon the effectiveness of modelling for decision-making are data quality and availability, miscommunication between analysts and decision-makers, inappropriate treatment of uncertainty, excessive model complexity (‘sophistication’) or simplicity and poor modelling practice. The challenges that beset catchment managers are usually framed as technical problems that can be overcome by using or communicating the science that underlies the models more effectively. As a result, many of the problems associated with the use of models by catchment managers have not been adequately elucidated from the standpoint of a manager. This thesis examines the problem of modelling for decision-making from a fresh perspective. Systemic approaches to research are commonly used where the research problem is ill-defined, as it is here. ‘Action research’ is one qualitative, systemic methodology, and was used here as the guiding methodology to explore the model related problems faced by catchment managers. Action research involves recurrent cycles of planning, action, observation and reflection. The research was undertaken with the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA), a New South Wales government agency responsible for water quality and catchment health in the drinking water catchments of Sydney, Australia. The SCA had expressed a particular need for tools to support the assessment of development applications with respect to potential impacts on water quality, and to prioritise rural land for remedial action to improve water quality in the drinking water catchments. The research had two broad aims that were:1.to develop two models differing in sophistication, and to use them to prioritise nutrient pollution sources and calculate nutrient loads; And, through the participatory development of the models, 2.to learn methodological lessons that catchment managers can apply to choose and use models more effectively. In this research, action was in the form of five planned activities, including: i. a review of relevant literature from diverse disciplines; ii. the holding of two workshops; the first exclusively involving SCA managers to identify their modelling needs, and the second involving water quality scientists and modelers to discuss methods for meeting the modelling needs; iii. the development and use of two export coefficient nutrient models; iv. a focus group discussion involving key staff in the SCA; and v. a review of published guidelines for good modelling practice in environmental management. Note was also taken of statements or behaviour at numerous meetings and seminars, mostly with SCA staff, that were relevant to the research questions.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Philip-Harbutt, Lisa. ""Look out there's an artist in the Business School doing research" a quest for an appropriate methodology." 2003. http://arrow.unisa.edu.au:8081/1959.8/24995.
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Decision-making in the arts sector is sometimes seen as problematical as many of the 'primary' decisions are made away from the 'primary' creative practice. The criteria for decision-making may be perceived as based on organisational or financial need, rather than creative output or social need. It is my view that the perceptions need testing. To do this I needed a way of understanding how decisions are reached in a variety of different contexts within the arts and cultural sector. Most would concede that decision-making is not a precise science. My quest thus became finding an appropriate research methodology for these explorations. Action research emerged as a useful framework for adding understanding within dynamic situations. This thesis reports on the usefulness of participatory action research as a tool for the exploration of decision-making processes by a range of people working within the arts and cultural sectors. Incremental view research has attracted extensive research in recent years. View maintenance techniques have been developed for the relational model, the temporal model, the object-oriented model, and the semistructured model. However, research into view maintenance in the non relational model is not complete and, in particular, the issue of view maintenance in nested relational databases and in object- relational (OR) databases has not been investigated. this motivates our research in this thesis.thesis (MBus(Arts,CulturalManagement))--University of South Australia, 2003.
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Proctor, Wendy Louise. "Multi-criteria analysis and environmental decision-making : a case study of Australia's forests." Phd thesis, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/148572.
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Lawrence, A. I. "Organisations and change : a comparative analysis of seven Australian water authorities." Master's thesis, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/120877.
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During the mid to late 70s, there was growing public
criticism of the failure of statutory authorities to
respond to changing community needs. Wilenski, in the
Report on the Review of New South Wales Government
Administration noted that "statutory authorities continue
to carry on meeting their original objectives, and (often)
lack the breadth of vision to perceive change in community
needs. There are institutional pressures for them to
continue to do what they have (always) been doing"
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Denson, Linley Alice. "Values and long-term care decision-making for frail elderly people." 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/37794.
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This project explored the values considered by elderly people, their younger relatives, and health professionals in decisions about residential long - term care, aiming to contribute to the literature on prospectively held values. The mixed methods design utilised a medical record review of 60 frail elderly hospital patients, a stratified survey of 3,015 adults in the South Australian community, and interviews with 36 stakeholders ( 10 elderly people, 10 younger relatives, and 18 health professionals ). The medical record review confirmed that the hospital patients and their outcomes resembled those described internationally. It was used to develop a hypothetical vignette, used in the later studies. Survey responses suggested that when considering a hypothetical long - term care decision, community members put the elderly person ' s physical health and safety first. Situational variables ( the elderly person ' s autonomy, environmental adaptation, and caregiver burden ) appeared secondary, albeit less so with increasing age of the respondent. Thematic analysis of the interviews demonstrated that elderly stakeholders considering a hypothetical decision were more likely to mention autonomy values, and less likely to mention safety values, than were relatives or health professionals. However, elderly stakeholders were also more likely to suggest restrictive solutions, such as residential placement and proxy decision - making. This finding raised methodological issues concerning ' third person ' vignettes, in that respondents might be responding as proxy decision - makers, rather than as if the hypothetical decision applied to themselves. The project confirmed that, in this context, prospectively held values resembled the retrospectively described values identified by McCullough, Wilson, Teasdale, Kolpakchi and Shelly ( 1993 ). Hence, the retrospective literature could be applied. The project supported the importance and complexity of psychosocial predisposing factors when applying the Andersen Behavioral Model ( Andersen, 1995 ) to long - term care decisions. Additionally, the Ecological Theory of Aging ( Nahemow, 2000 ) and the MacArthur Model of Successful Aging ( Andrews, Clark, & Luszcz, 2002 ) were found to be relevant to long - term care decisions for individuals and populations. It was concluded that both clinically, and at a policy level, discussions of long - term care could be more effective if they focussed on maintenance of elderly people ' s autonomy and control, rather than on their physical health and safety.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2006.
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CHEN, BO-SYUN, and 陳柏勳. "I Have A Dream - Reflection and Career Decision-Making on the Working Holiday in Australia." Thesis, 2016. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/km9n7t.
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碩士國立高雄餐旅大學
餐旅教育研究所
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Working holiday is one of the new types of traveling nowadays, and Australia is the country which most Taiwanese apply for. This study aimed to probe the participation motives, cross-cultural adaptation and career decision-making of the participants and provides conclusion and suggestions for people who are interested in working holiday in Australia as well as for academic reference . Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research were provided. This study employed purposive sampling method, and Snowball sampling was later used. The participants were 18 in this study, which used in-depth interview, documentary research and semi-structured in-depth interview to conduct the research. The outline of interview can be divided into four concepts, which are “travelling motivations”, “working motivations”, “Cross-cultural adaptation” and “Career Decision-Making”.The findings showed that: 1. Most participants hold a Bachelor's degree at least. 2. Working holiday is motivated by more than one reason, which are mainly “to experience life”, “to relax oneself”, “to be independent”, “to learn English”, “to carry out dreams of travelling in Australia”, “to connect with the world”, “limitation in VISA is low”, “to be fascinated by the natural scenery”, and “to make money for future use”. 3. The period of cultural shock will be shortened during the cross-cultural adaptation because most ready-to-go people will do some research in advance and many Taiwanese working in Australia can be found there. 4. After the first working year, about two third participants will do the second round. 5. After working holiday finished, most people will do same kinds of job in the industry. 6. Most participants are satisfied with the working experience. Finally, based on the results, relative suggestions were provided for further research.